Mats: Is Oda interested?
Ingrid: Definitely.
Knowing that Lotta’s day was going well helped Mats focus on the rest of his own. The meeting wrapped up at around four, so he ducked out early.
‘I’m meeting a friend for dinner. Cover for me,’ he said to Hanne as he pulled his coat on.
‘If anyone says anything, I will point out that you’ve left early exactly twice since I’ve been working here. And four is not that early, Mats.’
‘Thanks, Hanne. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
He walked home, stopping to buy a bunch of flowers for Lotta on his way. He chose a mixture of bright blooms to match his mood, and hoped she’d be at his apartment already, waiting.
13
After the disaster that was yesterday, at least until she’d met Mats for dinner, Lotta was hopeful that even if Oda didn’t end up being the maker she was looking for, at least she had a plan for what she was going to do next. Talking it through with Mats had made everything clearer and made her realise that this part of the process that was proving so stressful wasn’t part of the original brief at all. It wasn’t her fault.
She’d emailed Oda last night as soon as Mats’ sister had emailed her address, and when she checked her messages from the comfort of Mats’ bed after he left for work, Oda had already replied asking if Lotta would meet her for lunch. It was such a relief. If she wanted to meet so soon, she had to be interested in hearing about the project.
It would be so easy to stay in bed for longer thinking about what had happened last night, but she had to collect her things from the hotel and then she had influencers to meet, not necessarily in that order once she remembered she would need to get back to the hotel to shower and change.
By the time she was on her way to meet Oda, her things were still at the hotel but she had successfully met two influencers who were on board with the project. Although Lotta hadn’t been able to tell them the maker they’d be promoting, they were both enticed enough by the idea to have signed up, regardless. That alone made Lotta feel as if she were finally getting somewhere.
Oda had suggested meeting at a coffee shop in an area of the city Lotta didn’t know. The streets had a different feel from the centre of the city. It felt more homely, quite bohemian and arty and there were lots of independent shops that she would have popped into if she’d had more time.
She walked into the coffee shop and scanned the room for a woman by herself, hoping that the Instagram profile picture she’d studied would be close enough to reality to help her out.
‘Lotta!’ A woman was standing, waving at her. She was smiling as if she were a friend, which was a little odd, and there was another woman sitting at the table with her. That woman looked more likely to be Oda, so Lotta wasn’t sure who the waving woman was.
‘Hi, it’s great to meet you,’ she said, looking between them both and not addressing her greeting to either of them in particular. She sat down and shrugged her coat off.
‘I hope you don’t mind me gatecrashing,’ the waving woman said. ‘I’m Mats’ sister, Ingrid. I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet the woman my brother’s crazy about.’
Crazy about? Well, that was always nice to hear. ‘Not at all. It’s nice to see you.’ Now, she felt like this was some kind of audition, feeling on the back foot when normally she’d have felt super confident pitching to Oda about the collaboration.
‘And I’m Oda.’ She smiled, and Lotta felt at ease straight away. Oda had a very open, friendly face, and Lotta knew in an instant that if she could persuade her to sign on to the campaign, they’d get on well together.
‘Thank you so much for agreeing to meet me. I’ve looked at your work online and it’s incredible.’
‘I’ll leave you two to chat while I get some drinks,’ said Ingrid. ‘Coffee, Lotta?’
‘A latte would be great, thank you.’
‘I’m sorry for bringing Ingrid,’ said Oda, shaking her head and smiling. ‘There wasn’t much I could do to stop her once she knew we were meeting up today.’
‘Oh, it’s fine,’ Lotta said. ‘I’m so grateful she suggested you.’
Lotta explained the concept behind the campaign to Oda and was pleased to see her enthusiasm didn’t wane like it had with the other makers she’d met.
‘It’s an amazing opportunity for me. I’ve tried to get into Snug before because I always thought they supported local makers, but it didn’t seem to be like that in Oslo.’
Lotta bit her tongue, unwilling to throw Elin under the bus, although she would tell Clemmie because if Oda started working with them it would come out sometime. ‘I can guarantee you would be a supplier with them going forward. Since you’re not an existing supplier, we’ll use the collaboration to launch you.’
‘I already have so many ideas,’ said Oda. ‘I love the idea of using the Folk Museum as inspiration. It’s given me so much over the years, it’ll be wonderful to collaborate with them like this.’
‘I have a couple of influencers lined up to help spread the word. We’ll do some videos of you at the Folk Museum with them, and probably some in-store footage as well when we’re a bit further down the road.’
Ingrid came back to the table with a tray of coffees and pastries. ‘I got three different things because I wasn’t sure what you guys would like.’
